TY - JOUR
T1 - Theory of non-equilibrium 'hot' carriers in direct band-gap semiconductors under continuous illumination
AU - Sarkar, Subhajit
AU - Un, Ieng Wai
AU - Sivan, Yonatan
AU - Dubi, Yonatan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of the Institute of Physics and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.
PY - 2022/5/1
Y1 - 2022/5/1
N2 - The interplay between the illuminated excitation of carriers and subsequent thermalization and recombination leads to the formation of non-equilibrium distributions for the 'hot' carriers and to heating of both electrons, holes and phonons. In spite of the fundamental and practical importance of these processes, there is no theoretical framework which encompasses all of them and provides a clear prediction for the non-equilibrium carrier distributions. Here, a self-consistent theory accounting for the interplay between excitation, thermalization, and recombination in continuously-illuminated semiconductors is presented, enabling the calculation of non-equilibrium carrier distributions. We show that counter-intuitively, distributions deviate more from equilibrium under weak illumination than at high intensities. We mimic two experimental procedures to extract the carrier temperatures and show that they yield different dependence on illumination. Finally, we provide an accurate way to evaluate photoluminescence efficiency, which, unlike conventional models, predicts correctly the experimental results. These results provide a starting point towards examining how non-equilibrium features will affect properties hot-carrier based application.
AB - The interplay between the illuminated excitation of carriers and subsequent thermalization and recombination leads to the formation of non-equilibrium distributions for the 'hot' carriers and to heating of both electrons, holes and phonons. In spite of the fundamental and practical importance of these processes, there is no theoretical framework which encompasses all of them and provides a clear prediction for the non-equilibrium carrier distributions. Here, a self-consistent theory accounting for the interplay between excitation, thermalization, and recombination in continuously-illuminated semiconductors is presented, enabling the calculation of non-equilibrium carrier distributions. We show that counter-intuitively, distributions deviate more from equilibrium under weak illumination than at high intensities. We mimic two experimental procedures to extract the carrier temperatures and show that they yield different dependence on illumination. Finally, we provide an accurate way to evaluate photoluminescence efficiency, which, unlike conventional models, predicts correctly the experimental results. These results provide a starting point towards examining how non-equilibrium features will affect properties hot-carrier based application.
KW - CW illuminated semiconductor
KW - coupled Boltzmann-heat equation
KW - hot carrier photoluminescence
KW - steady-state properties of hot carriers
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85130078657&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1088/1367-2630/ac6688
DO - 10.1088/1367-2630/ac6688
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85130078657
SN - 1367-2630
VL - 24
JO - New Journal of Physics
JF - New Journal of Physics
IS - 5
M1 - 053008
ER -